Footprints Montessori Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are warmly greeted in their rooms by the nurturing staff team. Staff plan settling-in sessions unique to the children. As such, babies settle extremely quickly and explore the motivating environment. Older children are eager to tell staff about their various experiences over the weekend. Staff show genuine interest and listen intently to the children. This supports children's emotional well-being and helps them feel safe and secure.

The manager and staff are passionate about delivering high-quality care and education to the children, following the Montessori philosophy curriculum. They place high priority on supporting children to become confident communicators. Staff who work with babies and toddlers sing songs and rhymes. They use single words in their play. For instance, toddlers use containers to catch the rainwater, and staff use words such as 'drip, drip' and 'splash'. Toddlers mimic these sounds, developing their early vocabulary. Staff challenge older children in their language skills. For instance, children are learning about Australia and recall animals such as a 'koala' and 'duck-billed platypus'. Furthermore, they recognise pictures of famous landmarks such as Ayers Rock. All children make excellent progress in their speech and language.

Staff have high expectations of children's behaviour. They teach children from a young age how to respect their environment through positive praise. As such, children are gentle with the resources and listen well to the staff. Children's behaviour is good.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?

• Children are developing their independence from a very early age because of the excellent opportunities presented to them by the staff. For instance, toddlers learn to put on their shoes and waterproof boots to play outside. Older children often wash their hands without prompting before eating and after visiting the toilet. Furthermore, children prepare a watermelon juice drink as they cut up their own fruit for a snack. These skills help prepare them well for their later move to school.
• Overall, the curriculum intent is well sequenced and focuses on what the children need to further develop in their learning. Managers have an in-depth understanding of what they want children to learn. However, in some group activities, staff do not effectively extend children's individual learning. This means sometimes children become distracted and leave the activity. As such, they do not consistently benefit from the intended learning to build on what they already know and can do.
• Staff provide ample opportunities for children to develop their physical skills.
• Children are fascinated as they use pipettes to transfer coloured water into a glass jar to create weather clouds. Older children run and have great fun using the slide in the rain. Staff use this to help teach children how to keep themselves safe, but still give children plenty of challenges in their play. This helps children to develop their muscle groups for later learning.
• Staff teach children how to behave by demonstrating how to listen to each other during conversations and by using good manners. For instance, mealtimes are relaxed. Staff sit with the children and also enjoy the freshly home-cooked food. They acknowledge fully when children use the good manners they have learned. This helps children understand what staff expect of them.
• Inclusion is at the heart of this nursery. Staff provide very good support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They focus strongly on meeting their individual needs. Staff work closely with other professionals and parents to create and use plans that help children with SEND and medical needs to progress in their development.
• Partnerships with parents are very strong. They comment that their children's communication and speech are 'beautiful' and that their children are extremely well prepared for school. Parents are grateful for the regular information that is shared with them about their children's learning. This helps promote children's continuity in their learning and development.
• Managers and staff have positive relationships. Staff say that they love working at the nursery and feel valued in their roles. There are systems in place for leaders to identify mandatory training needs. However, this occasionally does not consider how to support the individual needs of staff to understand the intent of the curriculum fully.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to teach precise learning intentions during group activities to help children remain fully engaged and learning
• provide further support, coaching and training for staff to help them fully understand the nursery's curriculum to help them plan more precisely for each child's learning and development needs.